1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable clamp for holding cables or optical fibers at predetermined positions on a printed wiring board.
2. Description of the Related Technology
A cable clamp is used to hold cables or optical fibers at predetermined positions on a printed wiring board.
In the conventional art, to install the cable clamp on a printed wiring board, a through hole 71 is formed in a printed wiring board 70, and a projection 73 provided on a resin cable clamp 72 is press fitted in the through hole 71 manually, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 (refer to JP 10-26262 A and JP 02-297503 A, for example).
FIG. 7 shows a state of the cable clamp 72 before it is fixed on the printed wiring board 70 and FIG. 8 shows a state of the cable clamp 72 after it is fixed on the printed wiring board 70. The reference numeral 74 in FIGS. 7 and 8 denotes mounted parts.
In the conventional art, as shown in FIG. 9, a double coated adhesive tape 83 is affixed to the bottom of a cable clamp 82 without forming a through hole in a printed wiring board 80 to fix the cable clamp 82 on the printed wiring board 80 manually by the adhesive force of the double coated adhesive tape 83.
Further, there is known a technology for fixing a cable clamp in such a way that the cable clamp is divided into two parts: the one to be fixed on a printed wiring board; and the other for holding cables, and the part to be fixed on the printed wiring board is first fixed on the printed wiring board by soldering, to which the part for holding cables is attached (refer to JP 2001-148584 A, for example).
However, according to the conventional method which involves forming the through hole 71 in the printed wiring board 70 to press fit the projection 73 of the cable clamp 72 into the through hole 71 (see FIGS. 7 and 8), the through hole 71 formed in the printed wiring board 70 decreases the part mounting area on a side opposite to the cable clamp 72 mounting side, or lowers the degree of freedom of designing the wiring pattern of the printed wiring board 70.
Since the circular through hole 71 is generally used to hold the cable clamp 72, the cable clamp 72 may turn with the projection 73 press fitted in the through hole 71 as the axis of rotation when or after it is installed and accordingly may interfere with another mounted part 74 adjacent thereto or may be installed in a direction different from that intended by a designer, thereby making it impossible to hold cables or optical fibers in a right direction.
The installation position and direction of the cable clamp 72 on the printed wiring board 70 and the type of the cable clamp 72 greatly differ according to the printed wiring board 70 to be assembled.
Therefore, according to the conventional method which involves forming the through hole 71 in the printed wiring board 70 to press fit the cable clamp 72 in the through hole 71 (see FIGS. 7 and 8) and to the other conventional method which involves affixing the double coated adhesive tape to the bottom of the cable clamp 82 to fix the cable clamp 82 on the printed wiring board 80 by the adhesive force of the double coated adhesive tape 83 (see FIG. 9), it is difficult to automatically assemble the printed wiring board by a machine, and assembly work must be carried out manually.
Accordingly, the work efficiency of installing the cable clamp 72 or 82 is impaired and a mistake such as that a worker fails to install the cable clamp may be caused.
The same problems occur according to the method which involves dividing the cable clamp into a part to be fixed on the printed wiring board and a part for holding cables.